


sorrow's my body on the waves

by sandyk



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: F/M, set right now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 07:15:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13406160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: "I'm 72 years young," Abe said, as he sat back in his favorite chair.





	sorrow's my body on the waves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Small_Hobbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Small_Hobbit/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy, Small Hobbit! not mine, no profit garnered. title from the national's sorrow.

"I'm 72 years young," Abe said, as he sat back in his favorite chair. 

"I'm sure that's very young compared to your father," Jo said. The latest Mrs. Morgan. Abe liked her a lot. He liked the pleasant and lively feel of their home that last few years since Henry had wised up and married her. It was a good thing they had her in the family, too. When Abe and Henry had been so depressed and discouraged after the election in 2016, Jo was the one who said they should both start getting more involved in the community.

Also, she'd headed off Henry before he started telling that story for the 400th time of the time he met Rosa Parks when she was a civil rights investigator. "I was only in the US briefly --"

"Let me summarize," Abe had said. 

"Henry, I love you, but that's generally my preference," Jo had said. 

Abe used all his 1960s protesting experience to get his fellow Temple oldsters out at protest after protest. They liked to dress in full grandma and grandpa mode and carry signs about how old and Jewish they were and they were still there. Abe had a lot of fun with the signs. He'd met Tilly Nussbaum that way, the woman was still an incredible knitter. Nimble hands. Very nimble hands. 

More than protests, Abe and the other elders did community action twice a week. As Tilly said, "We have the time." Only twice a week because, as Tilly said, "We need some time to recover and still look good for Shabbat services.

"Jo said, "So what did you do this week? Are you still sticking with name Elders of Temple Zion? I'm not so sure it's as funny as you think."

"We lean into the name," Abe said. "It's a common tactic of marginalized communities. And this week we were babysitting for parents in a community teach-in. Only the non-mobile kids. But it was fun."

"I'm sure you were an excellent caregiver," Henry said as he came home from work. He kissed Jo first and then gave Abe a manly squeeze on the shoulder. 

"Did you bring that Thai fusion again?" Jo made a face. "Can't we just get simple food again? Just Thai food, nothing fusioned."

"Not where I was tonight," Henry said. 

"This is the free clinic I don't know about," Jo said. 

"If there were a free clinic for undocumented workers that wasn't affiliated with any official source so people wouldn't have to worry about being deported, that would be a great place to spend some time, Pops," Abe said.

"New York is, technically, a sanctuary city," Henry said. "These people shouldn't have anything to fear from official arms of authority."

"Technically," Jo said. "Let's keep it clean. Then I don't have to ask about your actual license to practice."

"We are all licensed to perform Tikkun Olam," Abe said. 

*

Henry admitted to Jo that sometimes he still wanted to open the door to Abe's room and check that he was okay. "He is nearly 73," Jo said. 

"I'm not doing it because of that," Henry said. "At some point we should tell Abe that you've fallen pregnant."

"I'm three weeks along and I didn't fall, we consciously chose to do this," Jo said. "Yes, I know that's how you say it, but it's such a weird phrase."

"I worry about Abe, sibling rivalry, you might say," Henry said. 

"For you, I won't make a joke. I get it, Abe's always been your focus and your love for as long as he's been alive and now there'll be this new little person," Jo said. "But also, he's nearly 73 and he's almost certainly mature enough to get it."

"He's very mature," Henry said.

"Yes, he's a great guy, you raised him right," Jo said. 

"You'll understand that feeling soon enough," Henry said. 

"In 73 years? Or sooner?" Jo smiled. 

Henry didn't give her the satisfaction of an answer. He did get up and walk by Abe's room. He remembered Abe as a baby and a toddler and a teenager and at his first and second wedding to that woman and Abe yelling at him to live after Abigail disappeared. It was just a moment to recall all of it, to feel it. He felt like an absurd old man to try that again. 

But he loved Abe, it felt equally absurd to deny himself a chance to know that love again. That was the argument Abe had used on him when he'd convinced Henry to marry Jo. To propose to Jo, Henry already wanted to marry her. 

*

Jo was watching Abe and Henry play chess while Abe "coached" Jo in her knitting. She was barely listening to either of them. They had their own language and Jo thought it was a kindness to let them talk to each other. Also, it let her watch TV without either of them interrupting her. Henry didn't think much of Jane the Virgin but Jo absolutely adored it. 

Abe liked it, too, they could watch in peace when Henry wasn't there. Henry, though, Henry had to comment on the archetypes and the stories he'd seen and that one time at the premiere of the opera of something or the other. It was adorable and sometimes she'd even listen because it was fascinating. But also she just wanted to watch Gina Rodriguez be adorable without the history of theater and TV and movies. 

She had a wonderful life, a baby on the way, a great husband who might die before her but would almost certainly come back the next morning and a great stepson. The world could be horrible, and they would work to improve it. And, she thought, a hundred years from now, Henry would be telling their grandchildren about it. She hoped he would emphasize how smart and pretty she was.


End file.
